>That's so great and inspiring. I cannot believe you started
>clean eating on Christmas Eve. Way to go!!! I am just now
>climbing back on the wagon after gaining a bunch of weight
>over the holidays. Can you give some idea of your day to day
>food intake? I'd love to know!!! Thanks!
I'm not doing ANY regular exercise right now because I'm just worn out (but I can't wait to get back to exercising seriously) from working 12-hour days/6 days per week. My eating is about the only thing I have control over so that's the one thing I'm doing for now. I eat breakfast before heading out and I have one half-hour lunch and four 15-minute breaks to plan for. I prepare as much of my lunch & snacks the night before as I can.
Breakfast is nearly always regular oatmeal (1/4 cup, down from 1/2 cup, which got to be too much), microwaved with a small bit of raisins and thawed frozen blueberries. I splatter on a little skim milk and sometimes add a drizzle of honey (but not usually). I'm usually struggling to find a way to get some protein at breakfast and often grab a couple of skinny slices of deli ham or turkey because it's all I have that's ready to eat. I finally bought unflavored protein powder, though. I'll try that tomorrow.
My first break is nearly always 1 to 1-1/2 Tbsp. all natural (Krema) peanut butter on two slices of Kroger Private Selection SUGAR-FREE Whole Wheat bread. This, on top of the morning oatmeal does a lot to sustain me early in the work day. Lately, though, a whole sandwich FEELS (literally) like too much so I'm starting to eat half now and saving the other half as a kind of dessert after lunch.
Lunch is usually one or two whole-wheat tortilla wraps with Dole Mediterranean mix bagged lettuce (with added carrot, red bell pepper, and onion) and 2-3 oz's lean deli turkey or ham and a small dose of Ken's Lite Balsamic & Basil dressing. If I don't have time to even throw those together I grab a lean frozen entree with vegetables (having those handy has saved me, but if I weren't so time-pressed I would not rely on them).
For my remaining three breaks I bring a crisp apple; a small bag of mixed dried fruits (raisons, prunes, dried cranberries, and dates) for when I'm desperate for something really sweet; I mix up 1/2 cup of plain nonfat yogurt and add thawed frozen berries (raspberries, blueberries, etc.) and I bring along 1oz. of raw nuts (pecans, walnuts, cashews, whatever). I always bring a tub of vegetables (frozen mixed veggies or green beans...) or I make a really great salad from the Dole Mediterranean mix with red bell pepper, celery, onion, radishes, carrot... with Kens Balsamic in a container on the side. I often add in a little turkey or ham or I bring tuna to eat on the side.
Clearly, there's a lot of repetitiveness and it's especially obvious to me now that I need to work at getting more protein at every meal... But I think a big part of my early success is because I'm making sure I get serious complex carbs early in my day so I get sustained energy, minus hunger pangs. I take a One-a-Day Women's multivitamin, a 600mg Calcium+D tablet, and (most important for me) a B-complex vitamin that features what my allergist referred to as "ridiculously high amounts of everything." I was in a fog for years and the B-complex changed that so I can't say enough about it.
I drink a ton of water all day (even though I'm not allowed to have "drinks" on the floor at work...) and often have unsweetened green tea or Stash's Fusion Red & White tea during my breaks. I'm trying to avoid sweets altogether but feel especially negative about artificial sweeteners. Sometimes, I break down and get a 20-oz. Diet Pepsi from the vending machine but I know doing so comes with repercussions (sudden hunger, foul taste in my mouth, cancer, holes in my brain...). In the late evening I'll often eat a couple of squares of Lindt 85% cacao chocolate (it's an acquired taste) because it's actually good for you. But what I really need to do is start cooking, which I've avoided because of time constraints and confusion (Clean recipes to a born Kitchen-Idiot are like Level 5 Sudoku). Meanwhile, this is what I'm doing. A nutritionist would probably say I'm going in the right direction but am not eating perfectly clean. All things in good time.
I do have Tosca's cookbook also, hopefully that will give me a little more variety, like you said, you can get bored of the same things.